• To engage in philosophy is to ask a variety of questions about the world and our place in it. What can we know? What should we do? What may we hope? What makes human beings human? These questions, in various forms, and others like them are not inventions of philosophers; on the contrary, they occur to most people simply as they live their lives. Philosophers, however, seek to keep such questions open, and to address them through reasoned discussion and argument, instead of accepting answers to them based on opinion or prejudice.
  • The program in philosophy is designed to aid students in thinking about these issues, by acquainting them with influential work in the field, past and present, and by training them to grapple with these issues themselves. The program emphasizes training in clear, critical thinking and ineffective writing. Philosophy courses center around class discussions and the writing of interpretive and critical essays.
  • Students majoring in philosophy will:
    • develop the capacity to formulate ideas precisely and clearly both in writing and orally, with special sensitivity to their argumentative structure
    • develop the ability to read texts carefully with an eye to identifying and articulating central lines of argument
    • learn to analyze critically the arguments identified, with a sensitivity to their form and content
    • cultivate the ability to defend a reasoned position in civil discussion and respond effectively to compelling criticism
    • gain familiarity with central themes in the history of Western philosophy as well as the contemporary practice of the discipline
    • be exposed to debates and issues in contemporary value theory and contemporary metaphysics and epistemology